‘Tis the season for job cuts

In what’s usually the joyful season of red and green, a few hundred Nebraskans are finding themselves frustrated and looking for jobs after a recent flurry of pink slips. Several layoffs have been announced across the Husker State in recent days.

Elster American Meter Company in Nebraska City is laying off 42 workers, blaming the housing market slowdown. In Norfolk, 20 jobs are being cut at the Veyance Technologies industrial hose plant. Telephone and broadband provider Windstream is cutting 30 jobs statewide. In southeast Nebraska, Alcan Global Pharmaceutical Packaging is laying off 30 people at its Syracuse plant, which makes glass containers.

Seven positions are being eliminated at St. Elizabeth Regional Medical Center in Lincoln, while Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney plans to eliminate up to 100 jobs, likely by the end of next month.